August 3, 2013
Here begins the “Three Things Serial Story.” Mary kicked things off with Oscillating Fan, but to keep things consistent right from the start, I needed to use three things. So I took two more “things” from Mary’s last two blog posts: Scent and Cowboy.
The Three Things Serial Story
With “things” sent from readers everywhere
Chapter 1
Oscillating Fan, Scent, Cowboy
Tic, tic, tic, grunt. Tic, tic, tic, grunt. The noise chipped away at her preoccupied mind while she absently gazed at the quiet street below. It was Sunday, so hardly anyone was out. A little boy in a cowboy costume came around the corner. He pushed himself against the brick wall of the building across the street and peeped back around its edge at his unseen playmate. Then he jumped out with arms spread like a bear to startle his friend, and quickly disappeared out of sight.
Tic, tic, tic, grunt. Tic, tic, tic, grunt. The sound of the fan drew her attention away from the window. Some would find the low repetitive noise hypnotic, perhaps even relaxing. To her, however, the sound was becoming downright annoying. A dust bunny skittered out from a corner, propelled by the breeze of the oscillating fan. The stirring air brought a familiar scent to her nostrils and she looked toward the door.
Teagan's Books 
Writing a short story with word prompts is one thing, but a novel with chapters of word prompts??? Man, talk about a lot more complex! Kudos to you for managing to get all those free range wildcats into chapters that make sense for the story plots!
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LOL, it was my blogging shtick. It feels weird to have given it up… but the serials just brought too many comments that were difficult for my C-PTSD. Anyhow, thanks for chatting. Have a wonderful new week.
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Neat idea to get three words from other bloggers, then craft a story from there! It’s like the image prompts that some bloggers put on a post, and others write stories or poems inspired by the prompts.
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Thanks, Dave. It’s similar, but takes the prompt concept to extremes. I wrote entire novels, three things at a time, never knowing what, who, or where they might include. Eventually, I had to pull all the threads back together to make the ending. That’s an even bigger job when you realize that many of the “things” create details that have to be tracked in order to tie up loose ends at the conclusion.
I’ve tried to “bookize” all of them. I’m finishing up the book version the longest-running one now — “The Delta Pearl: A Steampunk Riverboat” which ran for about two years. It will be a duology. (Most of the serials ran for around 33 weeks.)
But I also wrote these in the same Three Things method: 3 different ones featuring Pip: The Three Things Serial Story, Murder at the Bijou, and A Ghost in the Kitchen. As well as “Copper, the Alchemist, & the Woman in Trousers (not published yet), Thistledown: Midsummer Bedlam, Hullaba Lulu: A Diesel-punk Adventure, Brother Love: A Crossroad, The Armadillo Files… It seems like I always forget one or two, but maybe that’s all of them.
LOL, in other words, here’s to prompts. Hugs.
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Dang it! I wanted more!!! 🙂
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LOL, sorry! It’s all in the novella. Thanks for visiting. You’re the bee’s knees!
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Excellent Teagan you have my attention what did she smell?
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Thanks Dyanna. Have a lovely rest of the week. You’re the cat’s pajamas!
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A great beginning! Looking forward to finding out what she smells and what’s through the door.
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Thanks, Deborah. It’s fun to look back at this one. All the answers are in The Three Things Serial Story. Have a great rest of the week. You’re the caterpillar’s kimono!
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Oooops, I forgot! If I may be so bold as to suggest a “thing”…..A poster featuring Betty Boop.
🐾Ginger 🐾
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I love Betty Boop! Hugs on the wing.
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Jeez Louise, another winner in the making! The “scent”……cologne? perfume? Now my mind is preoccupied! Lol. That’s a terrific grungy looking oscillating fan Dan photographed. I saw many of them when I was growing up, and the only time they were clean and shiny is when they were removed from the box!! I kid you not! Looking forward to Chapter 2.
Hope your “issues” are a thing of the past by now. Bummer. 😡
🐾Ginger 🐾
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Hi Ginger! Haha, I had the same experience with those fans. Some had congealed dust-ball streamers.
This serial is actually how I built my blog (after about 6 months of blogging, I decided to use my “three things” writing exercise to do a blog serial. So this is the first of many. It amounted to a novella, which is “The Three Things Serial Story” cover you see in the trailing end of my posts.
I’ve rerun it a couple of times, so I don’t really intend to repeat the whole thing. Rather I hoped to renew interest for when I have the third book of this particular group ready to publish.
Thanks very much for visiting. You’re the bee’s knees!
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A super start, Teagan. If you are accepting three things I would like to offer, Stutz Bearcat, lorgnette, and Pimms cup.
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Oh what wonderful things, John! Thanks for visiting me and my remising about the story that started my blogging path. You’re the cat’s pajamas!
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Always good to be here
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Very nice post, Teagan. A great start.
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Why thank you, Robbie. You’re the caterpillar’s kimono!
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Very atmospheric. And now I want to know what memories the smell has sparked. Nicely done, Teagan.
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Oh you are pos-i-lutely the bee’s knees for visiting this old post, Staci. Hugs!
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Well, it sure didn’t take you long to get me hooked! “Tic, tic, tic, grunt.”
I have to admit to dressing up as both Davey Crockett and Bat Masterson when I was a little kid.
Great start, Teagan!
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Tee-hee! That would have been fun. I never had play costumes, but sometimes I’d sneak a black half-slip from my mother’s dresser and put it on my head, to pretend it was my long flowing black hair.
Thanks for dropping by here — and for having read the whole novella. Hugs.
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They started out as Halloween costumes. Every kid had a Davey Crocket outfit.
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Just wanna remark on few general things, The website style is ideal, the topic
matter is rattling good
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Rattling good … I like that! 😀 Thanks so much for visiting and for taking a moment to comment.
Evan, your photography blog is 100% fascinating. I’m looking forward to learning from it (and i’m not even a photographer)! Hugs.
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*Clapping* Bravo. Bravo! This is fantastic. I would have given you three words yesterday, but I didn’t want to be greedy! Thank you for mentioning me in your post.
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Thanks! I promise you — giving three is not being greedy! It’s actually being helpful. I was afraid to let myself see “who” this character/narrator is before more “threes” are sent. It will give me a more free-wheeling beginning. For some reason, this exercise [at least for me] lends itself well to mystery stories. Maybe that’s because I’ve no idea what’s coming next. But when you said “oscillating fan” my mental vague story setting became an old movie type detective’s office. I didn’t go into that detail in case other “threes” changed my mind.
t
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